it happened one night

It was morning really, about 2:20. I had just left the Golden Q, in Hays, with a buddy that was home for the summer, and his co-worker a man I knew only as Terry*. Terry was driving a Jeed, a real off-roader type, lifted, chevy 350 all the goodies. Terry was blasted, should never have been driving. He leaves the Q and heads west towards campus. At the time of the incident I was living at the University Apartments on 12th street. Terry believes that it is possible for him to drive on 8th street, then cut North to 12 across an open field. The other passenger, Mark* and I, both knew that this was not possible. The "open field" was dissected by railroad tracks, on the north side of which was a ravine about 12-16 feet deep and maybe 25 feet across. This ravine is not visible from 8th street because of the rail road tracks. Terry insisted on trying to cross the field, despite the screams of dissenting opinion from both Mark and myself. As we launched over the tracks, Terry let out a sickening grunt and "oh, no" I had a moment to consider that this was going to be the end for me, but as it turns out it was only the begining. The Jeep landed all four wheels on level ground for a brief instance, then careened down into the base of the ravine. Terry insisted that everything was fine, and he could drive us out. I was quite shaken from the adventure thus far, I had after all been sitting on an empty beer cooler and holding on to the roll bar the entire time.This is a good time to mention a few facts about the time and place of these events.First, there is a footbridge that crossed the ravine that students use to get back and forth to campus.Second, at 3:20 a.m. every morning a freight train runs down these tracks, by my judgement the train is usually travelling well in excess of the 45mph limit that trains are required to run through a town.Also, the town of Hays offers no options for crossing from the south end other than surface streets and railroad crossings, there is no bridge over, nor tunnel under the tracks.To get the Jeep back up out of the ravine took a grand level of driving skill. To exit on the side of the ravine where the tracks are took a major level of stupidity. From the ravine's edge to the track base at the point of exit was not more the 12 feet. from a standstill the Jeep did not have enough momentum to cross the tracks, and quickly became hung up. I know this part of the story is hard to buy for many people, but train tracks are actually quite an obstacle when there is no road leading up to them. There is quite a large base of loose gravel beneath the ties, and then the ties and tracks themselves. The front wheels were actually hanging over the first track, and the rear wheels began to dig into the loose gravel base, and this is what caused the most difficulty. Terry dug the rears in quite a bit and that left us with little leverage to move the front wheels.I had suggested biting the bullet and calling the police immediatley after the Jeep became stuck, and now after 30 minutes of working to get it unstuck, Mark joined me in advising Terry to suck it up. At 3:10 Terry relented, and I retreated to the house to call not the police, who might be able to stop the train, but instead a tow truck to assist in freeing the vehicle. I returned to the site of the incident with my roommates to make a final push to free said vehicle. As we walked towards the Jeep, we noticed a group of 20-30 people who had retrieved lawnchairs when they returned home from the bars, and were now watching the events from the parking lot.Our efforts again having failed, I returned to the apartment lot to await the tow truck. When It arrived, I told the driver to get out and enjoy a show. Sensing his confusion, I pointed to the west to headlight of the onrushing train. From a distance of no more than 50 yards, I saw the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. The Jeep was stuck on the right front fender, twisting the vehicle like the number 7. the body seperated from the frame but remained on top of it, like a terrible lift kit job gone wrong. All the glass was shattered and the cooler I had been sitting on was hurled a hundred feet into the ravine. It was truly the most amizing thing I have ever seen.After the train came to rest, Mark, Terry, and I decided upon a ridiculous story to tell the POlice, in an effort to avoid long term jail sentances. The general premise of our story was that the vehicle had been stolen. We decided that we should tell the police we had walked to the Q, and left the vehicle in the apartment parking lot. We had walked home to find it on the tracks, and that was when we called the tow truck. Obvioulsy this story held no water, and was not going to fool any cop, but we were proud of it. We retrieved the cooler, retreated to my apt and changed our clothes, they had become quite dirty as we attempted to free the stuck vehicle. We put the dirty clothes in the cooler and hid it in my roommates truck. Knowing the police had my address from the tow service, and would be by shortly. So we started drinking again. And when the cops knocked, Terry answered to door with a beer in hand.He did not get a DUI, because they could not prove that he was drunk before or after getting the Jeep Stuck on the tracks. He was charged with Federal Trespassing, resisting arrest, assualt and obstruction of justice, but that is another story for another day.
No, there are no pictures, but there once was a quick blurb in the Hays Daily News about it. It happened summer of 99 i think.